It's a truism that people use tablets like the iPad to "consume" content, not create it. But a new survey released today from Perion Network, which provides Web-based email and social apps, shows that iPad users do both when it comes to email. They also prefer the iPad to PCs and smartphones for reading and writing emails.

The survey of 4,400 iPad users in the United States showed that 55 percent prefer to read emails on the iPad, versus 32 percent on a PC or Mac and 10 percent on a smartphone. For composing emails, the iPad was preferred by 48 percent, versus 41 percent from a PC or Mac and 9 percent from a smartphone.

Ninety percent said that using email on the iPad was very important to them, and two-thirds checked email on their iPads at least three times a day. But the survey showed there's room for an improvement in the iPad email experience: Although 97 percent of iPad users read emails on their tablets, two-thirds send only brief replies, reserving detailed messages for when they're using computers. But 31 percent of respondents use the iPad as their exclusive email device, essentially replacing their computers for this task.

The survey also revealed that the included Apple Mail client is the favorite email app for only 41 percent of users; 31 percent preferred the Google Gmail app, and 13 percent the Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail app. Most of the rest used webmail clients via the Safari browser.

Finally, the survey revealed that men were more more likely than women to use iPads for work email: 52 percent of men did, versus 32 percent of women. Yet women were heavier users of email on the iPad than men, both for reading and sending.

Galen Gruman is an executive editor at InfoWorld focused on mobile and user-facing technologies, an author of more than 40 how-to books, editorial CTO for IDG US Media (InfoWorld's parent company), and an adjunct analyst focused on enterprise mobility at IDC's IT Executive Program.